Vive le DIY

Easter bank holiday in the UK is traditionally a time when families get together, get in the car and go to the DIY store in preparation for a monumental bout of DIY to mark the official start of the DIY season. Easter Sunday is known as Bloody Sunday to A&E departments, where the wounded start trickling in from about 10am, with saw cuts, ladder falls, foreign bodies in eyes and extremities attached to pieces of wood with nail guns. "Never buy a nail gun," one casualty doctor advised me.

Here in France, things are a little different. Public holidays, or jours fériés, are slightly more frequent than in the UK - 11 to our 10 - many of them in May, where the French have squeezed in an extra one as three didn't seem quite enough. But the interesting thing about jours fériés is that they tend to be treated as actual holidays, often with their own themed pastry, which I haven't got the hang of yet. "You might do bricolage on a normal weekend," says my friend Jean-Luc, "but jours fériés are for seeing families or friends, or doing something special. Besides, all the shops are closed." Which, frankly, robs DIY of that essential retail element, which in turn means tackling only jobs for which you have prepared in advance, and how likely is that? "You can always go to your friend's house to borrow tools," says Jean-Luc, "but you must stay for a glass of wine and a chat." And a pastry.

Part of living abroad is accepting the culture you are in, but the urge to DIY on this most sacred day is strong in me, however hard I try to adapt. I remember the feeling of release when we finally gave in to the three-hour lunch break, and just had lunch in it like everybody else. A jour férié is basically less work, more play, and pastries. It's going to be tough, but I think I can handle it.